Complicated (sounding) problem, looking for easy fix

[Sharlisse]

Putting the tl;dr at the very beginning:  after creating 190 characters and alts, things first went sideways when I created #191.  Yes, I DO know that sounds insane, along with everything that followed. 

 

(And yes, I know this is an awfully long and detailed post, but I prefer to put ALL the details in at the start, rather than having back-and-forth conversations about "did you try X?" <an hour passes> "Yes, I tried that." <two hours pass> "Did you try Y?" etc.  😄 )

 

So I've been playing CoH since launch, "just" discovered Homecoming about 18 months ago, and just typing this problem out is making ME roll my eyes.  Just when you think you've heard and seen everything, along comes a new thing. 

Earlier this week I created a new character, which took up the first slot on that server's "Page 20" of my Character Select screen. I ran around Atlas briefly, logged out, /altinvite-d that character to my SG, logged back to "Character Select" and then tried to go back to that character. "What the...? Where'd it GO? Did I have an empty slot on a previous page that it moved to?" No, I didn't. Back to page 19, click the "Next Character Page" arrow to change pages and there was a split second of seeing page 20 (and the new character) before I landed on the blank page 21. I clicked the "Previous Character page" arrow -- page 19.  "Next Character Page" -- page 21 again. "Is my mouse double-clicking somehow?" No. 

 

I finally managed to get TO page 20 by clicking the little dots at the bottom of the page between those arrows. I selected that character, entered the game, ran around aimlessly and logged back to the selection screen and the problem persisted. I kept plugging away with ineffective solutions:

Logged completely out of the game and back in. No help. Restarted the computer (running Windows 11 Home) and nothing. Did a FULL shutdown and a restart and the problem persisted. 

Okay, the new toon is just Level 6.  Deleted and remade the character and was happy that I save most character's first costumes. Ran around Atlas briefly again, logged out and "hey, it's on page 20 right where it belongs AND the little 'page arrows' work normally again." 

 

But THEN THINGS GOT WEIRDER!  In the course of my gaming, I'll frequently log out to the select page and get on another character.  The "Retrieving character list from <server>" screen only lasted a split second before all of this. I logged in another character to /altinvite again, logged out to the character select screen and the "Retrieving from <server>" screen hung up for about five seconds. I wrote that off to an ISP or server hiccup, logged into my new character, played for a while and noticed the same thing when exiting....

 

...and it's been continuing all week, every single time I've played, on at least 20 different characters -- except that five second delay now lasts anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds!! It's not the end of the world, but it definitely is annoying. 

 

If I click the "Back" button from that screen, a pop-up asks "are you sure you want to leave your place in the queue?" 

"WHAT queue? I'm trying to log OUT, not log into a busy server!"  

I've tried the "..." option to "Verify" under the green "Ready" button, which takes less than 2 seconds, which makes me wonder if it's actually verifying the game files, or just the launcher settings. 

 

Has anybody ever heard of this craziness before? Is there a way to actually verify the game files that I expect but haven't found so far? Or am I just going to have to uninstall/reinstall CoX?

 

Any suggestions or ideas welcomed, and thanks in advance! 

 

 

[Glacier Peak]

That's wild. I'd try revalidating your game files in the Homecoming Launcher or sending a Debug Report on the next crash. 

[Sharlisse]

12 minutes ago, Glacier Peak said:

That's wild. I'd try revalidating your game files in the Homecoming Launcher or sending a Debug Report on the next crash. 

 

Thanks -- this is probably the wildest, goofiest issue I've heard about the game in a long while! 

 

As mentioned, I'd tried the options including Verify under the green Ready button in the launcher, but since it verifies in under 2 seconds, I was afraid it was checking the launcher files, not the game files. And I guess the good news is that I haven't had a crash in a long while, but if I get one I'll definitely send the Debug Report! 

 

[Captain Fabulous]

Did you try deleting the playerslot.txt file?

[Wavicle]

I'm at 181 now, so I may soon come across this same problem!

[Sharlisse]

2 hours ago, Captain Fabulous said:

Did you try deleting the playerslot.txt file?

 

Oh, thank you VERY much!! I had not tried deleting that file until just now. 😃  (In hindsight it makes perfect sense since both issues were in that same stage of "select a character.")

 

It's getting late here so after I deleted that file I "only" logged onto 8 or 9 characters, but logging out now just takes 1 or 2 seconds of "Retrieving from <server>".  It seems like that was my previous normal wait time, but I did NOT have any of those crazy 5 or 20 second waits! I'll definitely be testing more as I play tomorrow (and rearrange the first few pages of characters) but thank you again!! 👍

 

6 minutes ago, Wavicle said:

I'm at 181 now, so I may soon come across this same problem!

 

Hopefully you won't run into the same problem, but if you do, Captain Fabulous seems to have found the solution!